The Wireless Access Providers’ Association (WAPA) congratulates one of its members, Internet Solutions, on the recent launch of its open access carrier-grade Wi-Fi network at the Cradlestone Mall in Mogale City near the Cradle of Humankind.

‘Carrier-grade’ is an industry term referring to Wi-Fi networks that are on par with mobile networks in terms of speed and reliability. The industry has been abuzz lately with talk of carrier-grade Wi-Fi and mobile carrier ‘offload’ to Wi-Fi, which delivers data services to the user’s smartphone seamlessly via Wi-Fi, rather than via a mobile technology like 3G or LTE.

Wi-Fi is in fact a wholly complementary technology to mobile technologies and WAPA expects to see a massive growth in carrier Wi-Fi in South Africa in 2014 and beyond.

Wi-Fi uses licence-exempt spectrum, which is highly prone to interference when there are multiple Wi-Fi networks in the same physical location. The most reliable and cost-effective way for multiple parties to provide Wi-Fi services in the same space, is to create a wholesale open access Wi-Fi network, for data provisioning and value-added services alike. Best-of-breed solutions delivering both value to venues, such as predictive analytics, and value to customers, like location-based loyalty solutions, will spread faster if network operators opt to wholesale their network.

According to WAPA Deputy Chairperson and Wi-Fi champion Ellie Hagopian, “Licence-exempt spectrum should remain just that, and not become the playground of incumbents who use their size to buy multi-year exclusive leases in key areas for self-utilisation or in order to partner with incumbents to use licence-exempt Wi-Fi solely for 'offload' from licensed bands. On the other hand, open access networks such as at the Cradlestone Mall benefit the entire industry.”

Just as building a carrier-grade network is far from straightforward, to provide open access in a secure, reliable manner requires understanding and complying with best practices. WAPA plans to lead a cross-industry collaboration in 2014 to define both technical and business best practices for open access carrier-grade Wi-Fi networks. More details on this will be forthcoming early next year.

WAPA has taken notice of the recent formation of the Wi-Fi Forum of South Africa and applauds its aims, which are aligned with WAPA’s own. Mohammad Patel, WAPA Chairperson, calls on the Wi-Fi Forum to collaborate with WAPA to promote open access, going further to state: “We call on any members of the Wi-Fi Forum that are not WAPA members to join our community, so that collectively we can promote industry best practices and lobby for open access.”